Google Partnered with Mobile Industry For RCS Expansion

Google partnered with mobile industry for RCS expansion. It has partnered with 43 carriers and device manufacturers to make messaging experience rich and more dynamic. The search engine giant is investing heavily in many partners to improve the messaging experience on Android with RCS (Rich Communication Services).

RCS adds value to existing messaging technology and it is essentially enhanced SMS and MMS. It was formed by a group of industry promoters in 2007 then back in 2015 Google first championed the standard. The protocol is powered by Google’s Jibe RCS cloud platform.

Now, Google is bringing more enhanced features to the RCS so that brands can text more multimedia-rich messages to Android users.

The highlight of this new standard is RCS business messaging which is also known as business-to-consumer messages. As part of Google’s Early Access Program, several companies in the US and Mexico have already signed up to have better conversations with their customers. RCS enables users to interact directly with messages and customers can even purchase a product without ever leaving their messaging app through the standard.

A number of new carriers in Europe and Latin American have signed up including AT&T in Mexico, Freedom Mobile, Telia Company, America Movil, Celcom Axiata Berhad, Oi, and Telefonica. Twilio has also announced today that it has added support for RCS.

“By making rich, interactive messaging features available to consumers in their default messaging app, RCS has the potential to be as ubiquitous as SMS is today,” said, Patrick Malatack, VP of Product and GM of Messaging at Twilio.